Falls of Falloch and Woven Sound

Allow about half an hour if you can park, enough for the short walk, a look from the viewing area and a pause beside the river. This is an easy place to fit into an A82 journey between the north end of Loch Lomond and Crianlarich. The main limitation is the small car park, which can fill quickly on sunny days.

The location pin marks the visitor car park. Follow the path through the trees toward the sound of the water, rather than trying to find a roadside glimpse. You don't need to make this a long hike to appreciate the falls.

The River Falloch drops about 9 metres into a rocky pool, an abrupt step on its way through Glen Falloch toward Loch Lomond. The combination of the single drop, dark rock and surrounding woodland gives you a compact scene you can take in from the viewing area.

Look at how the water spreads over the ledge and gathers again in the pool below. For a photograph, keep some of the rock wall and pool in the frame: they show the shape of the drop better than a tight shot of white water. Use the established viewing spaces and keep back from the river edge.

John Kennedy's Woven Sound structure adds another way to experience the falls. A long trellis of interwoven steel rods threads between the trees and projects out over the water's edge, forming a sheltered viewing space. Give yourself a moment to listen as well as look.

An excerpt from Dorothy Wordsworth's diary is etched into the steel, connecting the stop with the writers and painters who came to this landscape in the early nineteenth century. It's a small detail worth finding before you head back to the car.